I’m struggling.

[Gingerbreadhouse1]

Please tell me I’m not the only one?

8mo, started weaning with pouches, purees from approx 6 months old. The odd ‘melty stick’ .. wafer etc. I’ve tried to push myself by ‘mushing’ instead of puree veg which is working fine as are textures!

However, I’m really really struggling with offering ‘finger foods’. My heart tells me to keep slowly doing what I’m doing with blends / purées and mush/ texture and introduce finger foods / solids when I feel more ready.

I did a paediatric first aid session when mg baby was born but those large rubber dolls don’t resemble a fragile baby and I’m terrified about 8mo choking. We’ve had a few incidents were he’s gagged etc but brought it up. A large strawberry I followed the ‘solid starts’ advice and gave him a large one which because he has 4 teeth already he takes chunks!

My other mum friends are unable to relate and are freely giving their babies / younger sticks of fruit and veg etc, the only difference is they don’t have teeth yet.

I would welcome any advice about this topic and if anyone can reccomend what worked / didn’t work for them?

Another worry is baby due to start nursery in a few months and I’m terrified is he isn’t supervised with food etc. Am I hindering his learning ability to chew / not choke by delaying the above?

Thanks for reading, an anxious FTM

I don’t think that you’re hindering his learning ability but you may be slowing the development of his mouth muscles that he’ll need for speech in a little while

Gagging is perfectly normal, if a bit scary. If the Paediatric First Aid Course didn’t help, is this more relatable to your LO?

If your anxiety is really that bad though I would speak to your HV about how you’re feeling, it might be that you have PND and need a bit of support

One other thing you could try offering foods when you’ve got someone else with you or if you’re in your own, maybe in a cafe? If DH/DP is around you could leave them together and get DH to give DS a sandwich for lunch?

You know your baby best, so trust your instincts and do whatever you think is right for the both of you.

I was very nervous to give finger foods but I started with soft foods like over cooked sweet potato and carrot sticks and worked up from there. My baby surprised me how well he handled the finger foods. By 1 he was eating normal food just cut up.